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Your Next TV Remote Might Have a Netflix Button

Just ahead of CES, Netflix has announced that consumers will soon be able to access Netflix content on supported consumer electronics devices, directly from a button on their remote controls.

Netflix has partnered with several consumer electronics leaders to bring a Netflix-branded button to the remote controls for televisions, Blu-ray players and other set-top boxes that support the Netflix Watch Instantly streaming service.

Those leaders include Dynex (Best Buy's house brand), Haier, Memorex, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba. Netflix says Sharp, Sony and Toshiba will also be using Netflix buttons on their Internet connected TV sets. Connected device companies like Boxee, Iomega and Roku will also feature Netflix remote control buttons.

In the past few years, Netflix has worked to license its streaming technology to just about every connected device on the planet. In my own home (and granted, I'm atypical), I have no less than six different Netflix streaming devices at my disposal — and that's before counting smartphones, tablets and Macs and PCs. In fact, trying to find a Blu-ray player that doesn't support Netflix is almost impossible unless a consumer is going upmarket (higher-end players from Oppo, Denon and others generally do not support connected services). This trend has already started to move to HDTV sets and we expect the connected space in this arena to continue to expand into 2011.

The license-freely strategy that Netflix has employed has had a positive impact on its bottom line. The company says it has more than 16 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada collectively, and it was recently added to the S&P 500. In November, the company made its first significant move away from the DVD rental business, by adding a $7.99 streaming-only plan for customers in the U.S.

As consumers move away from disc-based media and turn to streaming solutions, Netflix is in a unique position of being exactly on-trend. The company is investing in newer content for both film and television for its streaming services and is proving to be a formidable competitor to the News Corp/ABC/NBC-backed Hulu and its subscription Hulu Plus service.

Hulu is employing similar strategies with device licensing and pricing for its Hulu Plus service, but the big benefit that Netflix has, by virtue of being on the market longer, is its reach. A number of companies have already signed up to provide Hulu Plus content on their devices, but the rollout is taking time.

Meanwhile, by securing prominent, branded placement on remote controls, Netflix is solidly promoting and reinforcing its branding to customers and future customers alike.

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